Posts Tagged ‘Kanye’

Though Kanye West is busy working on not one, but two upcoming albums, he took a break from the studio on Thursday (September 20) to “express some things that were not sitting right with [his] spirit.” As it turns out, many of those things have to do with the way his wife, Kim Kardashian West, has been addressed in the media by certain famous dudes, like the 6 God himself, Drake.

Taking to Instagram, Kanye uploaded a series of videos in which he tells the Scorpion rapper, “Don’t speak on nobody from my family, nothing that could be even mentioned with my wife. Period. We don’t have to talk again, I’m giving no energy to that.”

Apparently, Kanye is having a tough time with Drake’s silence after a wild theory materialized about the possibility of an affair between Drake and Kim.

“The fact that there’s people making rumors or thinking you fucked my wife and you’re not saying nothing and you’re carrying it like that, that don’t sit well with my spirit,” Kanye said, pointing specifically to the rumor that Kim is the mysterious “Kiki” Drake sings about on his hit “In My Feelings.” Kanye continued, “If I had a girlfriend from Chicago and her name was Ranita, and then you was married to Rihanna, I wouldn’t make no song called ‘RiRi.’ … Don’t make no record with nothing that could be confused.”

‘Ye would’ve preferred that Drake reach out to him to clear the air, like he claims he did with Travis Scott about “XTCY,” a song that mentions Kim’s sister, Kylie Jenner. Kanye further chides Drizzy for mentioning Kylie and Kendall Jenner in a potentially “offensive” way in a song that was leaked by Future a while back.

But Drake wasn’t Kanye’s only target — the Chicago rapper also had words for Nick Cannon and model Tyson Beckford. Addressing Cannon, he said, “I understand that you used to date my wife, but you get in an interview, don’t mention my wife.”

It seems that being back in his hometown has resurrected Kanye’s fiery Chicago attitude. Hopefully we’ll get to hear more of those candid thoughts on that impending new music.

After years of samples and speculation, it appears the YEEZY Basketball Shoe is officially here.

Debuted by none other than Kanye West himself, the man of many projects recently joined Instagram and just uploaded a pic of him wearing the new hardwood model.

Upon closer look, the shoe sees the same styling as the second model thought to be that of the YEEZY Basketball line. A weave upper is perhaps most compelling or apparent at first look with 3M hits on the heel and tongue also adding to the intrigue. Capping off all the wildness is a semi-translucent sole which extends onto the upper for a nice visual overlay.

YEEZY Basketball is said to debut in the NBA this season. Keep it locked to Nice Kicks for updates.

It’s been a big week for Kanye West. After tweeting an apology to Drake for letting their relationship sour, he served as the creative director for the inaugural Pornhub Awards Thursday night (September 6).

In this role, ‘Ye apparently assisted with the particular design of the trophies for the ceremony, and NSFW merch bearing the likenesses of night’s winners is currently available for purchase at the Yeezy online store. But Kanye didn’t stop there; he also dropped a brand-new song with Lil Pump called “I Love It,” the video for which is an absolute trip.

The song itself only spans about two minutes, but the accompanying visual (directed by Kanye and Amanda Adelson) squeezes every moment of lunacy from those 130 seconds. It doesn’t amount to much more than Kanye and Pump warped and shrunk into what might be best described as Lego block people, waddling along and delivering the song’s hook: “You’re such a fucking ho / I love it.” But that’s plenty.

Kanye and Pump rock comically overlarge footwear; Kaney’s is an exaggerated version of the sandals he was ridiculed for wearing to 2 Chainz’s wedding in late August. Comedian Adele Givens gets a featured credit here, too, for a bit of her standup that bookends the song.

It’s notable that apart from a verse that’s mostly Kanye repeating, “I’m a sick fuck, I like a quick fuck,” his contributions to the song come from winking ad-libs, including one particularly knowing “scoop!” halfway through the song. The whole thing is wild, and you can watch it, in its fairly NSFW glory, above.

When we last checked in on the lingering cold war between Kanye West and Drake, it was via a Chicago radio interview Kanye did last week. “It hits me in a really sensitive place,” he said about the perceived tension between the two, which had been agitated by Kanye’s close collaboration with Pusha T, with whom Drake engaged in a bitter feud earlier this year.

Ultimately, Kanye spoke of the pair’s relationship positively: “Look, it ain’t no beef. Ain’t nobody got beef.” This might be why the artist took it even further, hopping on Twitter early Wednesday morning (September 5) to formally apologize to Drake in a series of short messages.

Kanye produced six albums early this summer, including Pusha T’s Daytona and his own, Ye. Drake pushed his Scorpion album release date back from June 14 to June 29, after Kanye’s rollouts had wrapped. Here, Kanye also referenced his infamous and erratic TMZ incident from May where he called slavery “a choice,” a comment he apologized for in the same radio interview from last week.

Crucially, Kanye admitted that “there should have been no songs with my involvement that had any negative energy towards you,” referencing his work with Pusha T around the time Pusha’s Drake dis track, “The Story of Adidon.” That song revealed the bombshell that Drake has a son, which Drake later confirmed on Scorpion.

Kanye also said that despite his Pusha affiliation, he did not supply his G.O.O.D. Music collaborator with the information about Drake’s son. In 2016, Kanye briefly feuded with Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose on Twitter, eventually bringing their son into the conversation. (“I own your child,” Kanye tweeted before deleting.)

Kanye then punctuated his tweet-storm with a message of hope, making plans to see Drake’s new live show, which kicked off with Migos last month. “I will be coming to your show within the next seven days to give love and be inspired by the art you have created,” he said.

Does this mean we’ll finally get a Drake version of “Lift Yourself” sometime soon? That might be a little overambitious — but in the meantime, we’ll just have to wait and see if Drake accepts Kanye’s apology.

In 2016, Chance the Rapper let it be known that, “I met Kanye West, I’m never going to fail,” during his scene-stealing verse on Kanye’s “Ultralight Beam.” Over two years later, Chance and Kanye are now collaborating again on a potential album. On Wednesday (August 29), West revealed to Fox 32 News the reason he’s in Chicago: ”I came by here with Chance to work on his album.”

Then early this morning (August 30), Kanye posted a video of him chopping up a Michael Jackson sample in honor of the legendary pop singer’s birthday. The only other person in the visual is Chance bobbing along to the beat. Prolific Atlanta producer Zaytoven also posted an Instagram photo of the two Chicago artists in the studio captioned “YETOVEN THE RAPPER.”

In June, Chano revealed to Peter Rosenberg that ‘Ye was producing a seven-song album for him.

“I’m 30 percent on everything that I’m working on, at least 30 percent,” Chance shared. “Supposed to be working on [the Kanye album] in July. So I don’t know. … We got six songs that are all fire, but I think the album’s going to be more than 14 songs. I think it’s going to be a full thing.”

Between the rumored Chance and Childish project and a Kanye-produced album, the young Chicago activist might steal our attention for the remainder of 2018.

Drake and Kanye West have been in a prolonged cold war ever since the release of Pusha T’s “The Story of Adidon.” The dis track revealed to the world that Drake had a son, and since then, Graham has been taking shots at Kanye. Recently, at the Chicago stop of the Aubrey & The Three Amigos tour, Drake rapped that “Kanye flopped,” adding to the long list of not-so-subtle shade. Finally, West responded this week during an interview on the 107.5 WGCI Morning Show.

“I was thinking just my mood, lik,e when we was talking about the Drake thing, like it hits me in a really sensitive place,” West told the hosts. “Cause you hang around people and they come to your house, be around your family and this and that, and then they get mad about a beat and they send purple demon emojis. I don’t play like that. I don’t play in that place. I don’t understand that. I’m not a gangsta like that. Look, it ain’t no beef. Ain’t nobody got beef. Ain’t nobody going to jail.”

As the conversation progressed, the Chicago mogul discussed where he thought Graham was insensitive and the idea of reconciling the relationship.

“We all got love for Drake,” he continued. “We understand that he got upset about it. I feel that it was insensitive for him in any way stress me out anyway after TMZ, while I’m in Wyoming, healing, pulling all pieces together, working on my music. You know, we’ll reconcile that one day, because we got to. Because we got work to do.”

In a Rolling Stone interview, Malik Yusef, a frequent West collaborator, discussed the potential of the Chicago artist hearing Drake’s “March 14.” Scorpion‘s closing track found Drizzy rapping about the experience of having his first child.

“I was not there, but I do know that story: [Drake] played early versions of those songs and so on and so forth,” Yusef said.

Earlier this week, The Late Late Show host James Corden tweeted out a tease for an upcoming edition of his beloved “Carpool Karaoke” series featuring none other than Ariana Grande. This makes sense: Ari’s got a new album dropping at the end of next week, so a promotional appearance on one of the buzziest music-centric late night staples will certainly help the reach.

In fact, a “Carpool Karaoke” appearance has become something of a rite of passage for superstars in the modern viral landscape. Justin Bieber, Adele, Britney Spears, Harry Styles, and even Red Hot Chili Peppers have done it; but staring at the list of guests long enough leads to one important question — when’s Kanye West’s time?

Reader, wonder no further. Tuesday night (August 7) on his show, Corden revealed — appropriately enough to Kanye’s mother-in-law, Kris Jenner — that he’s tried to get Kanye on “Carpool Karaoke” two or three times. Once, he even drove all the way to Kanye’s house, only to be told that “he’s not in the zone for it right now.”

Luckily for Corden, he later received an impressive apology from ‘Ye via a cube of flowers and a pair of Yeezys that, he joked, cost his show $ 45,000 for the failed segment.

And perhaps luckily for us — the Kanye-denied viewing populace of late-night TV — there might be hope yet. One of the other television Jimmies, Kimmel to be precise, teased an upcoming appearance by Kanye on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this coming Thursday night (August 9).

If this is true, it might open the door for a whole new round of late-night TV visits from Yeezy himself, who has been absent from traditional press rounds even with the release of his newest album, Ye, in June. It starts with Kimmel, then before you know it, Kanye’s rapping with Jimmy Fallon, nerding out with Stephen Colbert, and maybe even cruising through L.A. singing his hit songs in a large SUV with James Corden.

And if not, at least we can enjoy footage of Kris Jenner eating crickets and drinking a sardine smoothie. Oh, and she might be engaged too? A lot to process here. Check it out above.

Jimmy Kimmel brings out Kanye West’s most viral moments. The two have gone from Twitter spats filled with Spongebob memes to friendly appearances on-air. Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night (August 9), was no different. The late-night host briefly left the Chicago artist speechless after asking, “You so famously and so powerfully said George Bush doesn’t care about black people. It makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does, or any people at all?”

Surprisingly, the interview got more interesting when Kanye candidly described the meaning behind the phrase “I hate being bi-polar, it’s awesome,” which is written across the cover of his latest album, ye.

“It’s not an opposite. It’s not ‘I hate being bi-polar, it’s awesome,’ West explained. “It drives more of how you really feel. Doesn’t do a opposite thing. I think it’s important for us to have open conversations about mental health, especially with me being black, because we never had therapists in the black community. We never approach like taking medication or not. I think it’s good that when I had my first complete blackout at age five, my mom didn’t fully medicate me, because I might have never been Ye in this Times Square [building].”

Kanye also shared that his controversial statements on TMZ about 400 years of slavery seeming like “a choice,” was the result of being “ramped up” do to his bipolar disorder.

“At least, I’m happy that I know,” he continued. “Like even for this interview I knew I wanted to stay in a calm state, because by the time I got to TMZ I was ramped up. So what was awesome is that the world got to really experience someone in a ramped up state and that’s when you get these comments that just shoot out…They’re some cases of bi-polar where people go low. I’m one that goes high.”

Kanye also discussed producing five G.O.O.D. Music albums this summer and his favorite type of porn.

The creative output of Kanye West ranks among the most talked about subjects in pop culture over the last decade and a half. From music to sneakers, West’s work has seen critical and commercial success with interviewers wondering just how he does so much or maybe even more so who does what and what’s his role in making it all happen.

An open and curious collaborator, West has been known to build in bulk ala Michael Jackson, cutting down each album or in some cases collection to the point of perfection. Just as Dangerous scrapped an LL Cool J feature, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy trimmed muscle for the sake of a lean, compact classic. It would appear his approach to clothing is the same.

So, in an analogy, for every “All of the Lights” there’s a “Momma’s Boyfriend,” and for every Yeezy Season there’s a Pastelle. The clothing line that never was and the clothing line that currently is mirror that of the two suggested songs: one a smash hit posse cut pulling from all the biggest names in music past and present, the other an emotional tribute unarchiving the references of Billy Joel and Mobb Deep with the help of DJ Premier, Q-Tip and Soulja Boy but never released for consumption.

A new piece by Karizza Sanchez of Complex details the mysterious, coveted and unlaunched collection from Kanye known as Pastelle – or Past Tell Museum – brought back into conversations years ago with rumors of an Ian Connor bring back but still shelved serving as fashion’s Detox.

In the piece, Kanye’s Dream Team of collaborators and consultants ranging from Kim Jones to KAWS are profiled in regards to their work in the Pastelle pyramid with the likes of Taz Arnold and Ben Baller offering insight on what happened in the production process and why the line ultimately never happened.

Perhaps most interesting to sneakerheads is how the structure of Pastelle – or in some cases lack thereof – laid the blueprint for YEEZY Season as we know it. Of other curiosity is how many of the samples produced for Pastelle now prove ahead of their time and ahead of market, adding weight to Kanye’s claim of presenting the leather jogger to FENDI years before En Noir made it happen or drawing full-length Air Nike shoes as a kid in the ’80s.

Will Pastelle ever happen? Was Kanye on the cusp of merging streetwear, sportswear and vintage 10 years before modern times and five years before he truly hit his retail stride? The answer to the first question remains unknown, but every answer to the latter lives in this piece here.

Remember when Kanye West once rapped, ”doing five beats a day for three summers” and it felt like hyperbole? Well, he’s produced 35 songs for himself, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Nas, and Teyana Taylor in the span of a month, and now Chance the Rapper has revealed that West might also be producing an entire album for him.

“I’m in dry erase board mode, so I’m organizing and kind of trying to structure. But what’s cool is Ye’s kind of got me in a mode of understanding just your ability to multi-task and work on different things. He’s always been on that,” Chance said on the season finale of Open Late with Peter Rosenberg. “Because of his ability to work on multiple projects, I’ve been actively working on the project with Childish [Gambino]. I’m going to do a 7-track [album] with Ye.”

The rumored Chance/Childish joint project has been discussed in some capacity for the past six years, and now the Chicago rapper has divulged just how close to completion it actually is.

“I’m 30 percent on everything that I’m working on, at least 30 percent,” he continued. “Supposed to be working on [the Kanye album] in July. So I don’t know. … We got six songs that are all fire, but I think the album’s going to be more than 14 songs. I think it’s going to be a full thing.”

If Chance can pull off both a Kanye-produced album and a collaborative project with Childish Gambino in 2018, he might deserve the MVP.